Ok, looking under 'Support Requests' (#447076) there is a note about using ereg instead of preg, so i went back to convert my lone instance of a preg in the code. But try as hard as I might, I can't manage to use eregi_replace to do the same thing as my bit of code. lib.inc.php3 - line 694 $sql = preg_replace( '/\W'.$data[1].'\./i', ' '.$data[0].'.', $sql); Could somebody else make a suggestion about the query I can use? my best conversion of the pcre was "[!a-zA-Z0-9_]".$data[1]."\." but that doesn't work :-(. I have also realized that my code adds a nasty little bug. this is the SQL i was using to test the above: SELECT c.id, s.id FROM classes c, staff s WHERE c.staff = s.id ORDER BY s.id now if i change the fields section at the start just slightly, and the where clause by taking out some of the white space: SELECT c.id,s.id FROM classes c, staff s WHERE c.staff=s.id ORDER BY s.id then the ',' in the fields gets replaced with a space, and your perfectly valid query is now invalid. The same thing happens with the '=' in the where clause. We need to find a way to preserve the other character that matched the \W in the pcre as well as add a space after it. I had the \W in there so that trying to match 's.' would not match 'foods.' . Any suggestions on this one? -- Robin Hugh Johnson QTOD: "I used to be an idealist, but I got mugged by reality." E-Mail : robbat2@orbis-terrarum.net ICQ# : 30269588 or 41961639 Home Page : http://www.orbis-terrarum.net/ Time Zone : Pacific Daylight (GMT - 8) -----BEGIN GEEK CODE----- geekcode.com ebb.org/ungeek GCS/M/IT d-(+) s+:- a--- C++++ U++++ L++++ P--(+) W++ K++ PS+ N++ w--- O E---- M-(+) V-- Y++ PE++ PGP++ t-- 5 X+ R tv- b+++ D++ G++ e(*) h! r-- !y+ ------END GEEK CODE------ -----PGP INFO---- Key ID:0x7E20DFA1 FingerPrint: 5447C73A 30FB144C 89521B69 2D6A615E 7E20DFA1 ----PGP INFO-----